Closed for now or forever? The entrance to the Spice Room is presently blocked (Photo by Karon Liu)

It seems as though every restaurant nightmare is presently playing out in the basement of Hazelton Lanes, where Greg Couillard’s Spice Room and Chutney Bar sits abandoned behind a barrier of bar stools and a sign that reads “Restaurant Closed.” At Manyata, the restaurant’s courtyard café, dusty Christmas decorations have been pushed to the corner, and exposed wires hang from the ceiling like an abandoned renovation project. “Since David Nganga took over, it’s been a shit show,” says one Spice Room–Manyata server. “I’m madder than hell.”

The employee, who has been working at the restaurant for over two years, along with a cook and several other staffers, accuses owner David Nganga of not paying them. The cook and the server, who didn’t want their names published because they’re currently looking for other jobs, say that the Spice Room and Manyata are unlikely to reopen.

“In December, one of my cheques was split into two, and both of them bounced. How can you bounce a $200 cheque?” says the server. “That’s when you know something is wrong at a restaurant. They owe me $1,500, and a bunch of the other staff haven’t been paid yet, either. Our Christmases were ruined.”

Both of the workers show their paycheques—all signed by David Nganga—with a stamp from TD saying that the cheque has not been cleared due to insufficient funds. They claim half a dozen staff members haven’t been paid for December and estimate that the restaurant owes up to thousands of dollars in wages. They plan to charge Nganga with cheque fraud.

The pair also alleges that phone bills went unpaid; that the restaurant’s rent was overdue; and that there was sometimes no food in the kitchen. “I knew something was wrong because I’d come in and there would be no ingredients in the fridge,” says the chef. Their most serious accusation, however, is that the restaurant was serving alcohol without a licence; indeed, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario tells us that the Spice Room hasn’t had a licence since May 25, 2009.

Nganga says he doesn’t know about the bounced cheques. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I’ll look into it,” he tells us, indicating that the closure is due to plans to move the Spice Room into the adjacent retail space, once occupied by Marc Laurent.

“I’m renovating and doing construction,” he says, noting that the restaurant will not participate in Winterlicious, even though the Spice Room was listed as one of the participating restaurants (it has since been taken off the Winterlicious Web site). “I’m going to shut it down and start construction on it next week for a month or so… I’m relaxing right now before the construction starts. I haven’t had time out for three years.”

Nganga’s landlords, however, take a different view: “We terminated them in December. They’re gone,” says Hazelton Lanes’ senior property manager, Miriam Blumenfeld, who would not say why mall management ended the lease. “They don’t exist anymore.” She also says that there are no tenants for the Marc Laurent space, and that both it and the Spice Room are currently “blank slates.”

Nganga did not return phone calls about the lease, but Michael Sannella did—he’s the husband of co-owner Lee Sannella and confirms that the lease is up. He says that the place is under renovation and is expected to open by April, but he is unsure if it will be under a new concept.

As for the restaurant’s namesake—Greg Couillard, who now works in Ajijic, Mexico, as the head chef of Chili Bang Bar—he says he isn’t surprised that the Spice Room is apparently closing for good. “I suspected as much,” he tells us over the phone from Mexico. “I just think it’s a dead-end space, quite honestly, and I haven’t spoken to my business partner for 10 days. It’s all part of the restaurant business, but still, it’s such a shame.”

I worked there as well and my cheques always bounced. They deserve what they got. It is true, they did drink and smoke in the kitchen and as a non smoker I was appalled. It just shows you how easy it is to get away with bad behavior in this industry. Glad to see you go!! Finally, what goes around comes around.

i wrkd there! all of wat the ppl r sayin above is tru
David Nganga pocketed the staff’s christmas paychecks and tips frm the servers leaving ppl stranded w/ no money for christmas, while he gets drunk @ the yorkville bars..
SHAME, SHAME, SHAME ON U
i hope david had a shitty christmas & a stressfull new years.. ASSHOLE
rot in hell, rot in hell
wat goes around, comes around!
i hope he end up begging 4 loose change!
god bless….

I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I work at a restaurant where the same things are going on: bounced pay checques, late pay checques, no ingredients, etc. I smiled when I read this article as I have asked myself the same question many many times, “How does a $200 cheque bounce when a restaurant is selling thousands?”
Imagine an italian restaurant running out of sundried tomatoes, meatballs, goat cheese?
Restauranteurs such as Nganga do not deserve to ever be running a business in this country.
Shame on him and on Toronto for letting these practices go on.

i guess its true the black guy always get it. Concidering that nganga was not the root of this problems with the bounced check which you ALL know if you worked there and if you dont wake up and stop lying to your self and others coz i bet you mr nganga has had his fair share of bounced cheques over the last three years he inherited an existing sitiuation and tried to make the best it we all knew that so dont play ingnorant we all who to blame

The place has always had problems but not to this extent. The staff never ever got screwed this bad. He’s a selfish prick! We all no how many christmas parties went through that restaurant in december. There is no excuse to leave the staff with no money at christmas. Thats just low. So who’s falt is it Coolit!

Wow – I’m not in the restaurant business nor have I worked at one but I am blown away by the comments. Only because my fiancé and I had been looking at Manyata/Spice Room as a possible venue for our wedding reception this coming year. We met up with Lee to talk things over and she seemed like a nice enough lady and not to sound mean, but talk about unprofessional and out of it. For example, she’d spend a lot of time trying to find a file on her computer and if we spoke or asked a question during the search, she’d totally lose her train of thought and forget what she was looking for and decide to stop looking. Um…ok.

We loved the location and had high hopes because it seemed really reasonable budget-wise but after our misgivings on how well Lee could handle planning the event and her lack of getting back to us at all (we never heard back from her ever again – even though she promised to send us menus and we sent reminders), we decided to pass.

After reading this article and the comments, it looks like we dodged a *BIG* bullet.

It’s really to bad they took down the coments from 1 too much in the know. What was said, was for real. If any of you worked there you know it’s true. I quess they have to watch their buts. I think it’s time to get the big guns ivolved.It’ becoming too hard to get our paperwork from this place, everyone should do what they got to do. LEAGALY!!!!!

Btw, Coolit – your comment “i guess its true the black guy always get it” is pretty stupid and quite insulting. Are you trying to say because he’s black, he’s just a scapegoat and an innocent? I don’t know the parties involved but after reading the comments here and keeping somewhat up with the grape vine about chefs and restaurants, I’d have to say David Nganga can’t get away with at least part of the blame. He might not have been the root of the problem, but he certainly didn’t seem to help it.

M, It was Nganga’s name on the bounced checks. No one elses. The worst thing, is he knew the checks were no good. Him and that thing he called manager, would go in the back stairway and laugh when anyone left with their checks. I’m sure he still thinks it’s funny. Lets see if he still thinks it’s funny when Revenue Canada comes looking for him. Looser! As for coolit, you must be one of Nganga’s drinking buddies. That all he seems to be .good for. He must be picking up your tab!